Sunday, June 18, 2006

thoughts...

I have been thinking about what I have been doing so far, especially after my conversation with my grandpa today. Ironically, I seem to talk more to him now that i am thousands of miles away from him, thanks to the telephone. How much is our generation losing nowadays actually, simply by non-effective communication or non-communication with the older ones? Their wisdom of the years, their implicit understanding of how things are...sometimes I want to weep when I think back on the bonds we had when I was still a kid, and how they are currently...just not there anymore. But the hope is there. It just takes a step, on my part, picking up the phone and calling.

In front of my eyes is a scene of a little 6 year old girl, running around the void deck in an attempt to see how many pillars she can reach in the shortest time, while waiting for her grandpa to catch his breath on the walk home from the Kindergarten. The girl is impatient, but she knows the importance of rest for grandpa.

How I wish I could go back to that time. When was the last time I took a walk with grandpa? How many years ago was that?
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Below is an article from the Straits Times, Singapore's National Newspapers, which I think everyone really should read. (This particular article, i mean) Mikhail Gorbachev is really a man who has changed the world. How much courage does that take, in following your beliefs, knowing that what you do is right, and with a sureness that is unwavering, to go on a path that you know might cause you to lose everything you have achieved so far? That is truly the measure of a man's character.

Remembering how one man made history
By Warren Fernandez, Foreign Editor


HE LEFT A LEGACY: Whatever his faults, to my mind, Mr Gorbachev is living testimony to the saying once attributed to American president John F. Kennedy: 'One man can make a difference, and every man should try.' -- AFP


IT MUST not be easy being Mikhail Gorbachev.
Remember him? He was the first and last president of the Soviet Union, whose reformative polices of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) contributed to the end of the Cold War, the break-up of the Soviet Union and, ultimately, him losing his job.

I encountered this political giant recently, at a lunchtime talk on the sidelines of a newspaper conference in Moscow.

He was speaking to journalists from around the world in his deep baritone, wagging his finger pointedly at times, as if addressing one of the Politburo meetings he used to preside over in the Kremlin, right next door to where we were.

At 75, he was sprightly, even feisty, his distinctive birthmark on his forehead as pronounced as before.

Somewhat poignantly, he delivered a robust defence of perestroika, his empire-shattering policy, which literally changed the world.

Some people, he noted, felt that it was all a big mistake. This included the old Soviet ruling classes, former communists and those who held positions of privilege. Life had become harder for them, and many others, he acknowledged.

But without the transformation he unleashed, wittingly or otherwise, there would not be today's Russia, where the world's editors were meeting to discuss their trade and debate the state of freedom of the press around the world, from Moscow to Manila.

Indeed, just a day before, Russia's current President Vladimir Putin had sat impassively listening to a sharp critique of his government's dealings with the media, albeit delivered politely by president of the World Association of Newspapers Gavin O'Reilly. This had happened in the Kremlin State Palace, the heart of the Russian government.

'Gosh, this would have been unthinkable in the past,' a veteran Moscow correspondent from a news agency whispered to me.

In a sign of how things have changed, Mr Gorbachev also announced at his lunch talk that he was becoming a publisher himself, taking a 49 per cent share of the newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, which he helped set up in 1993, using part of the money he had received from winning the Nobel Peace Prize three years earlier.

The paper - known for its investigations into corruption and its critical reports on Chechnya and the government - would be relaunched with a new format in January, but its editorial policy would remain independent, he added.

In a recent interview with Time magazine, Mr Gorbachev had also noted: 'Seventy-seven per cent of Russians say they want to live in a free and democratic country. That is the legacy of perestroika. People now think that we are on an optimistic path; they have hope.'

Without perestroika, there would be no economic reforms in Russia, which are only now beginning to unleash the potential of this vast, old country.

His successor, Mr Boris Yeltsin, he charged somewhat bitterly, had messed things up, allowing Russia's wealth to fall into a few hands. President Putin was putting things right, restoring order, stabilising the economy, improving the health and education systems, he noted.

Yet, Mr Yeltsin was feted in the West, and Mr Putin is viewed with suspicion, he noted ironically, adding that the United States should not wish for a Russia that was weak, which would play second fiddle to Washington.

Without perestroika, there would not have been an end to the Cold War, the end to Soviet domination over Europe, a receding of the nuclear threat that once hung over the world, perhaps not even the rise of today's globalisation.

So, despite these gains, did he think there were mistakes made in his push for perestroika, someone asked him at the conference.

After all, might not a more gradual approach have enabled a stable transition, as the Chinese are now trying to manage?

Yes, he thundered, there were many mistakes made. But, on balance, it had been worthwhile.

'Read my new book, there's something on this in it,' he quipped with a smile, plugging his latest work, Understanding Perestroika, which has just been published. In it, he argues that the introduction of perestroika in the Soviet Union in 1985 was one of the three most significant events in Soviet history - the others being the 1917 revolution and the victory in World War II.

The parallel he draws with these events is telling, since each reshaped his country - and the world - forever.

It must be difficult being Mr Gorbachev. For someone who has made history, he has to live with the knowledge that he is reviled by many at home, and also abroad, as having blundered in office and lost a once-mighty empire, unleashed capitalism on a generation brought up to believe it was evil, and plunged the country into a wrenching period of economic and social change.

Indeed, Singaporeans might well ask just what bearing this forgotten figure from the 1980s and a faraway land has on their busy lives?

Well, quite simply, were it not for this man and his actions, your life and mine would be very different today.

Instead of terror threats, we would still be worrying about the Soviet totalitarian menace, the risk of the world being plunged into a nuclear nightmare, not to mention the countless number of lives wasted in the pursuit of futile ideological battles between East and West.

Whatever his faults, to my mind, Mr Gorbachev is living testimony to the saying once attributed to American president John F. Kennedy: 'One man can make a difference, and every man should try.'

So I found it touching when a young Russian girl rose during the lunch discussion, simply to express her gratitude to him for helping to bring about changes to her country, which enabled her to enjoy a better life today.

Later, a middle-aged German editor approached him, clasped his hand and thanked him for all he had done, not just for Russia, but for Europe and the world. 'History will remember,' the man in a bow tie declared.

Mr Gorbachev fell silent. He reached out, put a hand on the man's shoulder, and smiled, a gesture that hinted at his innate humaneness.

I read later that when asked by Time magazine if he was now enjoying his life, this man of history replied simply: 'Yes, but there are some difficulties. Travelling is physically hard. And my (government) pension is only 40,000 roubles (S$2,350) a month.'

In a candid moment, he revealed that his other passion, apart from politics and power, was something which many Singaporeans would share - food.

'We like to cook. I love Russian food most, but also Italian and Mediterranean. I am more involved as the theoretical director of meals, but when they are ready, I get involved at the consumption stage too. (Laughs) Then I have to explain to people why I can't seem to lose weight.'

warren@sph.com.sg

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